Mikel Arteta has said Bukayo Saka will have to ‘deal with expectations’ following his increasing influence for both club and country.
Saka continued his excellent form this season with a starring role for England over the last week, his goal and assist against Ukraine taking the 21-year-old to 18 goals and 11 assists for Arsenal and England combined this season.
The Arsenal academy graduate is expected to sign a bumper new deal to keep him at the Emirates, and speaking ahead of Saturday’s clash with Leeds, Mikel Arteta said that Saka will have deal with ever-increasing expectations and attention.
“He’s going to have to deal with expectations of the media, with attention on the pitch,” said Arteta at his pre-match press conference. “When you want to fulfil a role like the one he has at the moment, you need to be capable of doing that.
“So don’t read too much, don’t listen too much, just focus on what you have to do every day. That’s it.”
Arteta joked that he has a “stick ready” in case Saka gets carried away with himself but believes his character will mean there is very little chance of that happening.
“The way he talks to people, how he behaves, how he treats people, that’s because he has been raised like that,” he said.
“He still has a lot of things to improve and a lot of things to maintain. Before he wasn’t able to do that. So he needs to continue to maintain those things and elevate the level of other things that he can still do better.”
